D&D General Adventure help; Escaping the Dreamworld

[Lackofname]

Needing just a bit of help with an adventure design.

The plan is to have the PCs thrown into the Plane of Dreams. The goal for them is to get back to their normal plane, but have they have zero plane shifting magic. So this is very much a "journey to find the out" or "come up with a way to get out". As this is going on, they are dealing with their characters' fears and subconscious flaws coming after them, secrets will be exposed, etc etc.

What I don't have are many ideas how the PCs can get back home. What I'm looking for is a plot-method for how they get home, rather than an item/spell/etc.

You might wonder "Why not let the players come up with an idea to pursue" and honestly they're not that clever? I don't say I lead them by the nose, but I definitely paint road signs. Thus I at least need an answer in my pocket.

Misc Details:
1. The PCs are thrown into the plane by the dying act of a cursed Demi-god they are going to fight and kill. The only idea I've had so far of "how they can get home" is to search for a trace of that demi-god's power and, when they find it, BS their way back to their plane (Really just an excuse to pop them out in the basement of a derelict temple to the now-deceased demi-god)

2. The PCs actually know a Nightmare, a dream-effecting fey creature they swapped favors with and left on amicable terms. I don't want this NPC to simply snap fingers and get them back home, but instead serve as a sort-of guide/source of info. I realize the easy answer is the Nightmare solving the problem, but it shouldn't be easy.

 

[Richards]

Night hags have the ability to haunt people in their dreams. Would it be possible to encounter a night hag tormenting some poor soul in the dreamworld and have to bargain with her to get back to the mortal plane? That puts the PCs into a position where they'll have to do something the hag wants in return and it could put them into some interesting moral dilemma territory: they likely won't want to aid the hag in any way, but if she's their only way home....

Johnathan

 

[MattW]

Always steal from ....AHEM... be inspired by the best

As "Exhibit A", I give you the Wizard of OZ. This plot could solve your problem

Do you want to get home? Just follow the, er.... Road to the Crystal City and ask the Crystal Mage to help.

The Crystal Mage can get them back home. But they have to travel to his or her magical city (and make some friends along the way). Also, their arrival has SERIOUSLY annoyed someone. That entity is pursuing them and intends to take revenge. Would the demi-god's sibling be a good candidate for the revenge-seeker?

 

[Lackofname]

Night hags have the ability to haunt people in their dreams. Would it be possible to encounter a night hag tormenting some poor soul in the dreamworld and have to bargain with her to get back to the mortal plane? That puts the PCs into a position where they'll have to do something the hag wants in return and it could put them into some interesting moral dilemma territory: they likely won't want to aid the hag in any way, but if she's their only way home....

Johnathan

Funny story, they've actually sorta dealt with a (normal) hag. While they hated helping her, their back was up against a wall, and her request wasn't entirely awful at the time--they wound up fetching a powerful item for her. That particular hag knows the PCs hate her guts, and wouldn't tempt them again. While evil, her motivation is protecting the local region from extra dimensional threats, which the campaign has been full of.

So I could use the Night Hag, it would simply be close to the previous scenario. THe Night Hag though would be more obviously evil, and make a more overtly awful request. The first thing that comes to mind is the Night Hag demanding the PCs murder a local monarch the PCs are allies with, because she'd be amused by the utter chaos and destabilization of the region this would lead to. (TBH I don't know if the PCs would agree to this or not, so a backup plan would be good.)

The Crystal Mage can get them back home. But they have to travel to his or her magical city (and make some friends along the way). Also, their arrival has SERIOUSLY annoyed someone. That entity is pursuing them and intends to take revenge. Would the demi-god's sibling be a good candidate for the revenge-seeker?

That's not bad, but I want the conflict to be about the PCs wrestling with their own psyches. My thinking is that the plane is fluid and wild, shaped by thought and emotion and memory, a (distorted) mirror of the mind that is looking into it. Since the PCs are utterly foreign and unprepared for it, suddenly all the garbage in their subconscious is going to seize control. For instance one PC is a traumatized ex-slave, and they'll have to travel through the nightmare version of the tower the PC was enslaved at. Another PC's flavor is that he's the soul of a dead prince possessing a guy who touched the wrong object, and the host was too mentally weak to kick the PC out, so the poor host's been sitting in the mental back seat seething--here in the Plane of Dreams, that guy is going to show up with a boat load of built up righteous fury.

One of the big distinctions I am making is that very few things in the Plane of Dreams is physically there. It's a place where minds touch when they're asleep, and things like night hags, nightmares, etc are psychically projecting their minds there. Meanwhile the PCs are flesh and blood standing in a place that has no physical surface to walk on. It's the difference between a soul going to Hell vs a living person walking in. Thus it's a pretty rare event and harder to get home.

Using the Wizard of Oz as a framework though, the thought that comes to mind is actually looking for a God of Dreams, who can send them home. The trouble is that the realm has no real geography. IT's less "Follow this road, and you'll see all the things along this road", but more a swirling space of drifting minds. So maybe the PCs just have to wander until they bump into something that can lead them to the God of Dreams. Which does let me drag things on until they look bored.